Refrigerating apparatus



July 1940- D. F. NEWMAN REFRIGERATING APPARATUS Filed April 22, 1939 Fig. l.

uvuuuauuuuuouuowo Inventor": Delbert F Newman,

is Attorney.

Patented Jul 2, i940 PATENT *FFICE REFRIGERATIN G APPARATUS Delbert F. Newman, Schenectady, N. Y., assignor to General Electric Company, a corporation of New York Application April 22, 1939, Serial No. 269,431

1 Claim.

My invention relates to refrigerating apparatus. it It has been found that foods stored in refrigerator cabinets give off odors which become ob- 5 jectionable when the concentration is sufficient to render the odors detectable. Therefore, it is an object of my invention to provide new and improved means for removing. from the air in the cabinet the odors generated I by the foods 0 stored therein.

A further object of my invention is to provide new and improved means for circulating the a air within the food compartment of the refrigerator into contact with material which will remove food odors from the air.

Further objects and advantages of my invention will become apparent as the following description proceeds and the features of novelty which characterize my invention will be pointed out with particularity in the claim annexed to and forming a part of this specification.

For a better understanding of my invention reference may be had to the accompanying drawing in which Fig. 1 is a fragmentary front elevational view of a refrigerator cabinet illustrating the use of my invention and Fig. 2 is an enlarged sectional view of the evaporator or cooling. unit shown in Fig. 1 taken along the'line 2-2 of Fig. l.

'80 Referring to the drawing 1 have shown-a refrigerator llllprovided with heat insulated walls defining a food storage compartment II with an opening l2 in the front wall of the refrigerator. l0 and a heat insulated door l3 for closing the opening l2. The compartment II is cooled by means of a cooling unit or evaporator l4 arranged in the upper portion of the compartment II. A shelf l5 for the support of articles to be cooled is shown.

I Unless the natural convection induced by the -.cooling unit I4 is impeded, there is set up a circulation of air within compartment II which continuously circulates the cabinet air past and through'the evaporator or cooling unit M. In

5 order that the circulating air may be filtered and odors removed therefrom, I have provided, in the illustrative form of my invention, a hollow door It, the walls thereof being provided with a plurality of perforations ll, a suitable odor sorbing material l8 being deposited within the hollow portion of the door I6. As illustrated Fig.2, the door l6 maybe suitably constructed from inner and outer perforated sheets or members i9 and 20, respectively. The door l6 may 55 be suitably hinged to the side walls of the evaporator as. for example, bymeans of a hinge 2|.

. continuous circulation insures a continual removal of odors from the cabinet air and thus minimizes the transfer of odors from the articles stored within the compartment H to the compartment air and to the other stored articles.

Modifications will occur to those skilled in the art. For instance, the sorbent material may be suitably supported at the rear of the cooling unit M or from the side walls of the cooling unit M or even adjacent the cooling unit M from a shelf or the walls defining the food compartment ll. The most important consideration is to make certain'that the sorbent material is placed in such a position that'substantial quantities of the circulating air will come into contact with the sorbent material.

It is not necessary that all of the circulating air pass through the sorbent material because odors in small concentrations are not necessarily objectionable and substantial benefits are de-, rived even though all of the odors present in the air are not removed. Inasmuch as the commonly known odor sorbent materials deteriorate in use, suitable provision should be made for the replacement of the sorbent material. For example, as shown in Fig. 2, door member l9 may be supported from door member 20 by suitable tapped bosses 22 secured to door member 20 and bolts 23 extending through suitable openings in door member l9. With this arrangement, door member l9 may be removed from door l6 after removing bolts 23 and the filtering material removed and replaced whenever necessary.

While I have shown a particular embodiment of my invention, I do not desire my invention to be limited to the particular construction shown and described and I intend in the appended claim to cover all modifications within the spirit and scope of my invention.

What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

In a refrigerating machine having a food stor- 'age compartment therein, a cooling unit in said 5 compartment for effecting cooling and circulation of the air within said compartment, a door for said cooling unit, said door comprising spaced apart perforated members, and an odor sorbing material in the space between said members.

" DELBERT F. NEWMAN. 

